[Taxacom] genera of animals with >900 named species

[Felix Sperling]

I’m posting this on behalf of my colleague. Please respond to her directly.
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Dear Taxacom folks:

Thanks very much for your rapid and helpful replies!  I've attached the summary here, listed in order of when I read the responses rather than by taxon. Note that there are some genera with different estimates or different comments in the Notes column. It seems that Coleoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera monopolize the list. In fact, the only genus not belonging to these three orders is Arrenurus!  I sent a modified version of the question to the arachnology listserv, and Ray Fisher had an interesting comment (I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him):

"I am not an authority on this topic. But, as far as I know, Arrenurus is the largest arthropod genus outside of Holometabola. A quick search through the catalog by Zhang (2011) supports this. There are some big spider genera (Myrmarachne ~200, Pholcus ~300, Xysticus ~400, Theridion ~600, Araneus ~700), but nothing approaching Arrenurus... especially given Ian Smith thinks such a huge proportion are undescribed. If I remember correctly, Ian suspects Arrenurus (if it isn't broken up) could catch up to Agrilus (Buprestidae), which is the largest animal genus (~3000 sp.) right?"

This has been a useful exercise for me! My main interest is not in the philosophy or psychology of decisions about generic boundaries (though they are fascinating), but in the pragmatic issues of dealing with a gigantic genus. From the survey, it seems that quite a few other taxonomists are in the same boat. 

Cheers,
Heather
-- 
Dr. Heather C. Proctor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta
CW405 Biological Sciences Building
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6G 2E9
email: hproctor at ualberta.ca
phone: (780) 492-5704
webpages: lab pages -  http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/proctor_lab/
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  Biol Sci home page - http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/faculty/heather_proctor/